Bexley takes fifth in state, 120th in nation in rankings

Tuesday April 30, 2013 2:22 PM

Bexley High School has learned it received a gold medal in recent U.S. News and World Report rankings, placing as the fifth highest performing high school in Ohio.

Bexley High School earned the 120th spot nationwide among some 22,000 public schools in 49 states and the District of Columbia analyzed by the magazine. Bexley's performance was recognized with one of only 19 gold medals awarded in the state of Ohio.

The American Institutes for Research helped U.S. News implement a "comprehensive rankings methodology, which is based on the key principles that a great high school must serve all of its students well, not just those who are college-bound, and that it must be able to produce measurable academic outcomes to show the school is successfully educating its student body across a range of performance indicators," according to usnews.com/best-high-schools.

Bexley students take advantage of Advanced Placement course work and exams, with a participation rate of 81 percent. The district just added a 20th AP course at Bexley High School, representing an unusually high number of AP offerings given the size of the school. In 2012, 275 students took a total of 538 AP exams.

The school's College Readiness Index of 65.4 was based on "exam participation rates and percentages of students passing at least one exam. The Index determined which types of medals (gold, silver or bronze) were awarded to top-performing schools."

The only central Ohio school coming out ahead of Bexley was Olentangy Liberty High School in Powell, earning the No. 4 ranking. Other central Ohio schools on the list include New Albany at 18th place, Upper Arlington at 25th and Grandview at 42nd.